Di Canio made some odd tactical decisions and at times his man-management style was embarrassing... but he should have been given longer to prove himself at Sunderland

I remember the day Paolo Di Canio was first linked with us. It was clear that a storm was going to be coming our way.

Everything was going to come up, from his background, politics and his personality. It’s been an interesting six months, that’s for sure.

I don’t think he or the club handled those first few days particularly well regarding his views on fascism. It brought so much attention to the club that we didn’t want.

A lot of Sunderland fans with an interest in politics would say that you can’t just ignore it. Of course, you can’t. A lot of non political football fans, though, would say just judge him on his football, not his politics.

End of the road: Paolo Di Canio was sacked by Sunderland following the defeat to West Brom

To sack him now, though, doesn’t seem right to me. We are five games into the season. People usually say you should wait until Christmas, but at the very least I would have said he should have another four or five games.

I do have some sympathy for him and I think a lot of fans think he was not given enough time. But his personality, that ego and volatility was a big problem. He didn’t make life easy on himself with his rants and it was embarrassing at times.

You’d sit there and cringe when he criticised his players. And not just young players, he’d go after the captain as well.

Interesting tactics: Di Canio set his sides up to be offensive

He picked out people like Stephane Sessegnon and John O’Shea. It doesn’t matter what industry you are in, if you tell people they are rubbish, and do it in front of everyone like he did, they will not perform better.

As a manager, away from his personality, he did some odd things. We were always so offensive under him tactically. You need some kind of defensive spine and it wasn’t there.

And why did we have only three pre-season friendlies? We signed 14 players in the summer and he admitted they will need time to gel. So why only three friendlies?

That’s ridiculous.

Wrong move: Di Canio criticised Stephane Sessegnon publicly before selling him to West Brom and he scored on his debut against Sunderland in the game that cost the Italian his job at the club

The board have to take a lot of responsibility for all of this, particularly Ellis Short. I don’t know how many of the 14 who came in this summer were Di Canio’s choice, because Roberto De Fanti, our Director of Football, deals with player recruitment.

PDC made a few comments that suggested not all of them were. That wouldn’t have gone down well. In any case, he needed time to make them gel. He wasn’t given it.

Whether, or not, he was the right choice is also down to the board. I don’t think they did their research on him, what he was like personality wise. It shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to them, but Short is not a football man.

Not all bad: Di Canio celebrates his side's win over Newcastle last season

He has obviously done very well in business but as soon as things get rough with a football man he is ruthless. Look at Steve Bruce and Martin O’Neill. Roy Keane had one meeting with him and resigned.

Would Di Canio have been a success with more time? I really don’t know. I think he needs to mature a bit, be less volatile, calm down. He needs to get in control more, stop being so reactionary. He was reactionary in the press and with his tactics. Who will employ him now? I think to get back to the Premier League he is going to have to take a team up from the Championship.

Now I just want some stability at Sunderland. We have had five managers in five years. It’s not right.